# What do you think will happen when the water level at Lake Mead falls below 1050 feet? **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [November 11, 2021, 6:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-do-you-think-will-happen-when-the-water-level-at-lake-mead-falls-below-1050-feet/954201 "2021-11-11T18:07:53Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 6
**Author:** ![k9bfriender](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/k9bfriender/32/3283_2.png) [@k9bfriender](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/k9bfriender)\ **Post date:** [April 29, 2022, 3:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-do-you-think-will-happen-when-the-water-level-at-lake-mead-falls-below-1050-feet/954201/101 "2022-04-29T15:45:36Z")
Height also gives more head pressure. ---
**Author:** ![Darren\_Garrison](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/darren_garrison/32/92_2.png) [@Darren\_Garrison](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Darren_Garrison)\ **Post date:** [April 29, 2022, 4:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-do-you-think-will-happen-when-the-water-level-at-lake-mead-falls-below-1050-feet/954201/102 "2022-04-29T16:18:12Z")
> [@Pleonast](#): > > Perhaps **Cwturner** means adding rocks to the bottom of the reservoir so that less water is needed to reach any particular level. Yeah. > **[The Crow and the Pitcher](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Crow_and_the_Pitcher)** > > The Crow and the Pitcher is one of Aesop's Fables, numbered 390 in the Perry Index. It relates ancient observation of corvid behaviour that recent scientific studies have confirmed is goal-directed and indicative of causal knowledge rather than simply being due to instrumental conditioning. > The fable is made the subject of a poem by the first century CE Greek Poet Bianor, was included in the 2nd century fable collection of pseudo-Dositheus and later appears in the 4th–5th-century Latin verse co... ---
**Author:** ![carnivorousplant](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/carnivorousplant/32/3563_2.png) [@carnivorousplant](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/carnivorousplant)\ **Post date:** [April 29, 2022, 9:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-do-you-think-will-happen-when-the-water-level-at-lake-mead-falls-below-1050-feet/954201/103 "2022-04-29T21:11:12Z")
> [@Qadgop\_the\_Mercotan](#): > > Just have to find a place to dump all that resultant salt. Dumping it back in the ocean makes for local hypersaline dead zones Dump it on the salt flats. Sell some of it to aquarium keepers. Forty pounds goes for $40.00. ---
**Author:** ![MrDibble](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mrdibble/32/114_2.png) [@MrDibble](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MrDibble)\ **Post date:** [April 30, 2022, 9:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-do-you-think-will-happen-when-the-water-level-at-lake-mead-falls-below-1050-feet/954201/104 "2022-04-30T09:14:09Z")
Don’t the snow states need salt for winter roads? ---
**Author:** ![I\_Love\_Me\_Vol.I](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/i_love_me_vol.i/32/521_2.png) [@I\_Love\_Me\_Vol.I](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/I_Love_Me_Vol.I)\ **Post date:** [April 30, 2022, 12:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-do-you-think-will-happen-when-the-water-level-at-lake-mead-falls-below-1050-feet/954201/105 "2022-04-30T12:02:46Z")
> [@carnivorousplant](#): > > Dump it on the salt flats. Sell some of it to aquarium keepers. Forty pounds goes for $40.00. Desalinate seawater to get fresh water, then sell the resultant salt to marine aquarium keepers… …so they can add it to fresh water to make seawater. Can-do American know-how. ---
**Author:** ![carnivorousplant](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/carnivorousplant/32/3563_2.png) [@carnivorousplant](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/carnivorousplant)\ **Post date:** [April 30, 2022, 12:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-do-you-think-will-happen-when-the-water-level-at-lake-mead-falls-below-1050-feet/954201/106 "2022-04-30T12:10:42Z")
We could use it in Arkansas for the annual paralyzing two inch snow fall. Icy road maintenance here consists of three guys and a pickup full of sand in each county. ---
**Author:** ![snowthx](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/snowthx/32/10660_2.png) [@snowthx](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/snowthx)\ **Post date:** [April 30, 2022, 12:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-do-you-think-will-happen-when-the-water-level-at-lake-mead-falls-below-1050-feet/954201/107 "2022-04-30T12:25:54Z")
Going back to the OP, here’s the link to the lake’s water level measurements… > **[Lake Mead Water Database](http://lakemead.water-data.com)** > > water-data.com Lake Mead Water Database Today is at 1055 ft. While water users may be able to stick deeper straws into the lake to keep water flowing, power generation this summer is likely to be constrained. Not great for a region dependent on air conditioning. Where is electricity going to come from when the dams cannot generate? ---
**Author:** ![Saint\_Cad](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/saint_cad/32/18907_2.png) [@Saint\_Cad](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Saint_Cad)\ **Post date:** [April 30, 2022, 1:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-do-you-think-will-happen-when-the-water-level-at-lake-mead-falls-below-1050-feet/954201/108 "2022-04-30T13:13:32Z")
As a Republican, here is The Plan™. Let the water fall reducing the power available for the hard working people of (checks if it is a Red State. No, Nevada is blue. F them!) Arizona. Then blame Sleepy Joe Biden for his failed infrastructure plan … and covid. ---
**Author:** ![Bootb](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/e19b73/32.png) [@Bootb](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bootb)\ **Post date:** [April 30, 2022, 1:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-do-you-think-will-happen-when-the-water-level-at-lake-mead-falls-below-1050-feet/954201/109 "2022-04-30T13:51:02Z")
> [@Dewey\_Finn](#): > > OK, so golf courses in Phoenix use reclaimed water for irrigation. When are we going to accept turning reclaimed water into potable water? The idea of “toilet to tap” makes people uncomfortable but isn’t it a better option than desalination? Cities that are located in the middle-to-lower sections of major rivers have been doing “toilet to tap” since time immemorial. It just hasn’t been called that. ---
**Author:** ![Just\_Asking\_Questions](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/ba9def/32.png) [@Just\_Asking\_Questions](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Just_Asking_Questions)\ **Post date:** [April 30, 2022, 3:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-do-you-think-will-happen-when-the-water-level-at-lake-mead-falls-below-1050-feet/954201/110 "2022-04-30T15:33:29Z")
> [@Saint\_Cad](#): > > Then blame Sleepy Joe Biden for his failed infrastructure plan Just recently the two power companies in AZ warned that starting next year they may not have enough power generating capacity and we may get brownouts.At the same time Gov Douchy (Q-AZ) is pushing for more people to move here. ---
**Author:** ![bobot](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bobot/32/21622_2.png) [@bobot](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bobot)\ **Post date:** [April 30, 2022, 3:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-do-you-think-will-happen-when-the-water-level-at-lake-mead-falls-below-1050-feet/954201/111 "2022-04-30T15:41:51Z")
If only there were a star nearby that would emit more energy than we could harness. A fella can dream. ---
**Author:** ![carnivorousplant](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/carnivorousplant/32/3563_2.png) [@carnivorousplant](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/carnivorousplant)\ **Post date:** [April 30, 2022, 4:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-do-you-think-will-happen-when-the-water-level-at-lake-mead-falls-below-1050-feet/954201/112 "2022-04-30T16:05:25Z")
> [@I\_Love\_Me\_Vol.I](#): > > Desalinate seawater to get fresh water, then sell the resultant salt to marine aquarium keepers… > > …so they can add it to fresh water to make seawater. > > Can-do American know-how. It is easier to carry around forty pounds of salt than 150 gallons of salt water. 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![k9bfriender](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/k9bfriender/32/3283_2.png) [@k9bfriender](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/k9bfriender)\ **Post date:** [April 30, 2022, 5:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-do-you-think-will-happen-when-the-water-level-at-lake-mead-falls-below-1050-feet/954201/113 "2022-04-30T17:18:49Z")
Dehydrated water is a joke. Dehydrated sea water is salt. ---
**Author:** ![TroutMan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/troutman/32/6721_2.png) [@TroutMan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TroutMan)\ **Post date:** [May 3, 2022, 2:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-do-you-think-will-happen-when-the-water-level-at-lake-mead-falls-below-1050-feet/954201/114 "2022-05-03T02:48:27Z")
One result of dropping water levels that hasn’t been mentioned in the thread yet: all the dead bodies that will appear. > **[Body in barrel discovered at Lake Mead is likely a gunshot murder victim from...](https://www.cnn.com/2022/05/02/us/lake-mead-body-barrel-water-level-drought-climate/index.html)** > > The plummeting water level of Lake Mead revealed a body in a barrel over the weekend. Officials say the person was likely killed in the 1980s. ---
**Author:** ![wguy123](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/wguy123/32/3161_2.png) [@wguy123](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/wguy123)\ **Post date:** [May 3, 2022, 3:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-do-you-think-will-happen-when-the-water-level-at-lake-mead-falls-below-1050-feet/954201/115 "2022-05-03T15:44:29Z")
Vegas mobsters are already looking for a new location to disappear folks. Who knew new drought conditions would affect their operations? ---
**Author:** ![CalMeacham](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/calmeacham/32/35_2.png) [@CalMeacham](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CalMeacham)\ **Post date:** [May 3, 2022, 5:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-do-you-think-will-happen-when-the-water-level-at-lake-mead-falls-below-1050-feet/954201/116 "2022-05-03T17:08:46Z")
Vegas mobsters were looking into non-water alternatives decades ago, as the fine documentary **Diamonds are Forever** (1971) helpfully points out: [![](https://img.youtube.com/vi/X33UjqGVc18/maxresdefault.jpg "Diamonds Are Forever (2/7) Movie CLIP - Slumber Inc. (1971) HD") ](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X33UjqGVc18) ---
**Author:** ![Miller](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/miller/32/481_2.png) [@Miller](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Miller)\ **Post date:** [May 3, 2022, 5:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-do-you-think-will-happen-when-the-water-level-at-lake-mead-falls-below-1050-feet/954201/117 "2022-05-03T17:25:42Z")
> [@carnivorousplant](#): > > Dump it on the salt flats. Sell some of it to aquarium keepers. Forty pounds goes for $40.00. We’ve got salt mines, right? That’s where we’ve been getting salt up 'til now. Let’s start filling them back up again. ---
**Author:** ![carnivorousplant](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/carnivorousplant/32/3563_2.png) [@carnivorousplant](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/carnivorousplant)\ **Post date:** [May 3, 2022, 5:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-do-you-think-will-happen-when-the-water-level-at-lake-mead-falls-below-1050-feet/954201/118 "2022-05-03T17:43:56Z")
Which ever is closer and costs less transportation. ---
**Author:** ![TriPolar](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tripolar/32/3008_2.png) [@TriPolar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TriPolar)\ **Post date:** [May 3, 2022, 6:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-do-you-think-will-happen-when-the-water-level-at-lake-mead-falls-below-1050-feet/954201/119 "2022-05-03T18:13:58Z")
> [@carnivorousplant](#): > > Dump it on the salt flats. Sell some of it to aquarium keepers. Forty pounds goes for $40.00. Salt flats, sure. Aquarium keepers don’t want that salt if it contains industrial and agricultural run-off products. > [@MrDibble](#): > > Don’t the snow states need salt for winter roads? Yes, and it’s a large market. There are mountains of salt kept in the snow areas and they can run out in heavy winters. However, in some areas the content of that salt may be undesirable if there contaminants in it. ---
**Author:** ![snowthx](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/snowthx/32/10660_2.png) [@snowthx](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/snowthx)\ **Post date:** [May 3, 2022, 6:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-do-you-think-will-happen-when-the-water-level-at-lake-mead-falls-below-1050-feet/954201/120 "2022-05-03T18:16:29Z")
> [@TriPolar](#): > > Yes, and it’s a large market. There are mountains of salt kept in the snow areas and they can run out in heavy winters. However, in some areas the content of that salt may be undesirable if there contaminants in it. Plus, the cost of transporting it from dry/thirsty areas to wet/snowy areas - would be another line item cost to desal. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-do-you-think-will-happen-when-the-water-level-at-lake-mead-falls-below-1050-feet/954201.md?page=5) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-do-you-think-will-happen-when-the-water-level-at-lake-mead-falls-below-1050-feet/954201.md?page=7)